Tru-Vue Door-to-Door Sales

Tru-Vue Mail Order Sales

1930s Silver-and-Black Tru-Vue Film Brochure

This early 4-panel brochure (Form B-33-5) has a demonstration of operating the early Art-Deco Tru-Vue viewer, an order list with 22 film subjects (34 films total), and an order form for the monthly subscription to “Tru-Vues from Everywhere.” The films are 35 cents each, except for “The World A Million Years Ago” which was 40 cents. At the time of printing, there were already branch offices in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, and London.

1930s Pink-and-Black Tru-Vue Film Brochure

This early pink-and-black film brochure features the Art Deco viewer, “See the World!” globe design, and the “positively life-like” slogan. While the film list has grown significantly, many of the earliest films are no longer listed — for example, Tru-Vues from Everywhere, the Century of Progress series, and the Pacific Southwest Tennis Championship filmstrips. In fact, they make a point of saying that this is a complete list of current stock and “there are no other films available.” Another big change is the introduction of “Tru-Vue, Inc.” — Tru-Vue is an incorporated company, no longer advertised as a division of Rock Island Bridge & Iron Works. The films are still 35 cents each, and the viewer can be purchased for 65 cents.

1930s Red-Black-White Tru-Vue Film Brochure

This early film brochure was included in wooden library cases. It continues to show the Art Deco viewer, the “See the World!” globe design, and “positively life-like” slogan. They also continue to say that no other film subjects are available but additionally state that “films in natural color” are not available. This brochure introduces filmstrips for Canada.

1930s “Customer Letters” as Promotion — Individual Inserts

This 5-panel brochure appears to show actual letters from happy Tru-Vue customers as well as an article reproduced from The Christian Science Monitor.

1940s “Customer Letters” as Promotion — Brochure

This 5-panel brochure appears to show actual letters from happy Tru-Vue customers as well as an article reproduced from The Christian Science Monitor.

1940s Red-White-Blue Tru-Vue Film Brochure

The biggest change in this brochure is the viewer pictured: the new single-color streamlined Tru-Vue. Interestingly, the standard Tru-Vue logo is missing.

Updated 1940s Red, White, & Blue Tru-Vue Film Brochure

This updated brochure still shows the single-color streamlined Tru-Vue viewer, but now promotes “The New Tru-Vue.” The biggest changes in this more modern-looking film brochure are the addition of filmstrip numbers, an updated “See the World” globe design and font, and real photos of people using the Tru-Vue. And note the inclusion of the inlaid wooden library case.

“The New 1942 Tru-Vue” Gold Film List

This order form, printed on a large sheet of plain gold paper, shows the single-color streamlined Tru-Vue viewer while promoting that Tru-Vue is “a distinctive gift for everyone.” It has the standard text letting readers know this is a complete listing of what’s in stock and that no other films are available. A note at the very bottom says “destroy all previous lists.”

Updated Gold Film List

This gold-colored film list continues the promotion that Tru-Vue is “a distinctive gift for everyone” but has more design to it than the previous gold-colored list. It asks that you “destroy all previous unnumbered lists.”

September 1947 Promotional Enclosure

This special enclosure announces the “stunning duo-tone” Tru-Vue viewer in antique ivory and cocoa brown. It’s touted as “a precision instrument … exquisite in design and finish” and “scientifically designed.” We can see the patent is no longer pending and that it features “floating film” action.

1947 Plastic Library Case Promotional Enclosure

This half-sheet enclosure promotes the new plastic library case. The case was designed in the same cocoa brown and ivory as the newest streamlined Tru-Vue viewer and could hold either 1 viewer and 12 films, or 20 films. The promotion uses classic “act-now” language by saying the special offer is good “for the next ten days only!” The sheet acted as a coupon — it had to be presented to a dealer to take advantage of the offer.

Late 1940s Correspondence Set

This correspondence set brings together several of the items shown above: two of the duo-tone viewer promotions, three of the better-designed gold film lists (note that two of them have the newer duo-tone cocoa brown & ivory viewer), and the plastic library case promotion. Additionally, it has a generic “Dear Friend” letter that indicates a sample film reel was included with the correspondence. A flattened Depth Photography film box was also included — it appears to have never been folded into its box shape. So perhaps the film roll was loose in the envelope, which was the non-standard side-opening kind with a metal clip.

June 1950 Color Film List Brochure

This brochure is designed similarly to the one above but lists only color films. These color films, previously $1.00 each, are now being sold for only 50 cents. A 75-cent price is now listed for the library cases. This brochure also includes an actual image from one of the filmstrips.

Post-Sawyer’s Purchase Correspondence Set

This typewritten and signed letter comes from W. L. Kelker, Tru-Vue’s Advertising-Sales Promotion Manager. It appears to be both a thank-you for a completed subject suggestion card and a research request. Mr. Kelker promises a free film card in return for information that will help them create and better advertise their products.

Tru-Vue Mailing Envelopes

Tru-Vue didn’t miss an opportunity to advertise, including on the fronts and backs of their mailing envelopes.

Tru-Vue Mailing Envelopes - Reply, Postage Paid

Even their postage-paid reply envelopes promoted their products.

Tru-Vue Community Selling

Tru-Vue Consumer Magazine Advertising

After the Sale to Sawyer’s

These magazine advertisements promote Tru-Vue’s 3D cards, card viewer, and gift sets. Note the prominent featuring of particular characters like Donald Duck and Zorro in the ads to attract consumers.

Tru-Vue Dealer Advertising

Tru-Vue’s marketing budget wasn’t only for advertising to consumers. They directed quite a bit of advertising to dealers, convincing them to place Tru-Vue in their stores.

The ads were mailed to dealers, placed in magazines like Toys & Novelties, or made available at toy fairs and conventions. They promised year-round profit, packaging with sure-sell names like Yogi Bear, Casper, and Bugs Bunny, and assured national advertising on TV and in women’s magazines like Ladies Home Journal. Gift sets were promoted as easy to buy, easy to gift wrap, and easy to mail. By 1963, they were promising a reach of more than 63 million customers with full-page color ads in LIFE, Post, and Look.

Dealers had a wide variety of creative point-of-sale displays to choose from — a few are shown above, but there were many more, and they’re fun to collect.

Below are actual dealer correspondence & advertisements — not reproductions — in our collection.

Dealer Advertisements - After Sale to Sawyer’s

Tru-Vue Retail Point-of-Sale Displays

36 Film Display Box

This red cardboard box opens to become a display box for Tru-Vue’s full-color Stereochromes.

Easel-Backed Counter & Window Display Card

10 ½” x 13 1/2” color promotional display card for Tru-Vue’s color Stereochrome films.

Magic Eyes Card Display Box

The Magic Eyes owl folds up and out to help dealers promote Tru-Vue cards.

Tru-Vue Special Sets as Marketing

Even though these sets and more are covered in our Special Sets section, we’d be remiss if we didn’t also include a few of them here to demonstrate Tru-Vue’s marketing strategy. Tru-Vue would photograph special events and locations, then create custom sets to sell at those locations, such as tourist spots and hotels. They did extensive commercial photography as well and would occasionally build entire marketing campaigns around them.

Factory Stock

Tru-Vue Film Box Cartons

Indexed Tru-Vue cartons of film.

Walt Disney

We’ll end this section with a couple of cool items in our collection: colorful art boards depicting Disney scenes that were used in Tru-Vue products. We know that part of Tru-Vue’s sales & marketing strategy was the purchase of the rights to use Walt Disney’s cartoon characters. That smart move made Tru-Vue valuable to Sawyer’s and helped ensure Tru-Vue’s continued existence after the sale to Sawyer’s — first as a subsidiary company, then as a children’s brand.

While the Lady and the Tramp board has “Copyright Walt Disney Productions” in the upper-right corner, the Three Little Pigs board has “Copyright 1955 Tru Vue Company” in the upper-left.